


like fine wine

by SpicyReyes



Category: Left 4 Dead 2
Genre: M/M, Off Screen Death, Old Age, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-21 01:34:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/894235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpicyReyes/pseuds/SpicyReyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a man who hates aging, Nick does it beautifully.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like fine wine

•40•

Nick had been grumpy all day.

Ellis figured he should probably feel bad for him, and he would’ve…if it wasn’t so damn _cute._

About halfway through the day, the others had stopped saying anything even remotely resembling “happy birthday." Ellis, however, couldn’t be swayed. He kept his mouth shut, more or less, until that night, when he curled up beside Nick and offered him a huge grin.

"You know, it don’t seem fair," he drawled, watching Nick’s eyebrow climb up his forehead in question. Ellis leaned forward, resting on Nick’s chest and placing a small kiss to his chin. “You lookin’ so good at forty. And here I was hoping you’d get old and I wouldn’t have to try so hard to keep up."

Nick let out a small scoff that turned into a deep chuckle within seconds. “What can I say? Eternal beauty is my superpower."

Ellis moved to kiss Nick on the mouth this time, smiling against his lips. “Can’t argue with that."

•50•

Nick’s hair was over halfway grey, and Ellis was loving it. Nick had little lines next to his eyes, and Ellis loved those, too. Nick forgot the occasional little thing, like where he’d left something or whether or not he’d already heard Ellis tell a story, and Ellis loved that just as much.

Ellis loved Nick even more with every year that passed.

He told him this now, running his fingers through the lovely grey strands that showed how much Nick had been through, pressing a gentle kiss to the lines beside Nick’s eyes that showed how much he’d managed to make Nick smile, and reminding him of all the years of _"I love you"s_ in case he’d forgotten any.

•60•

The bottle of wine was from several years ago, and Nick’s face as he squinted at the little numbers proclaiming the year was priceless.

"This is from before the infection, right?" Nick asked, his weathered voice bringing a smile to Ellis’ face.

"Three years before. Took a long time ta find, lemme tell you."

"Damn," Nick muttered. He turned the bottle around in his hands, examining the label- maybe trying to place the brand. Ellis leaned onto his shoulder, looking at it with him. It was a proud find, and had taken a lot of persuasion to get onto the base. Luckily, as survivors ("veterans," they used to call them, until  
Nick yelled at them that they weren’t soldiers in any sense of the term), they were allowed a lot more than most.

"Aged wine, huh?" Nick finally said, snapping out of whatever trance he’d been in while watching the wine. The former conman smirked at Ellis, and though it was more friendly than the cocky ones he used to flash the southerner, it had the same gut-twisting effect on him. “All these years and you’re resorting to trying to get me drunk?"

Ellis laughed. “Ran outta tricks. Not all of us age like fine wine, Mr Gamblin’ Man."

Nick smiled, kissing Ellis, slow and deep. And after all their years together, Ellis was able to read the words he wanted to say just in that one gesture.

•70•

Coach was gone, leaving the remaining survivors an even more closely knit family in his absence.

Some of the others on the base, the ones who hadn’t lived through the infection, had sent them things and held a memorial for everyone who wanted to go. Ellis and Rochelle had appreciated it, but it had irritated Nick. They hadn’t known him, he would say, in the middle of the night while pressed against Ellis. They didn’t have the right to pretend they had.

When Nick’s birthday came, the same people rallied up. Ellis figured that Coach’s passing reminded them all of how little time they had left to treasure their “veterans." He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Sad, mostly. He didn’t want to think about losing Nick.

The base post office quickly filled with packages for Nick, letters and gifts from people he’d never even met. A classroom that had been learning about the infection made him cards.

Ellis thought they were cute. Nick grit his teeth and sulked for most of the day.

It was late afternoon when the last package arrived: a fruit basket. Nick stared at it in disbelief, having been completely convinced that no one actually sent fruit baskets to people, it was just a thing that media had made up.

Inside the basket, Ellis discovered chocolate covered strawberries. The opportunity was too good.

Sitting across from Nick, legs propped up on the coffee table, Ellis was thoroughly enjoying each strawberry. Every once in a while, he’d find a particularly good one, and let out a low noise of pleasure as he bit into it.

Nick noticed.

Sitting beside Ellis and attacking his mouth, Nick grit out, “I am _seventy._ Stop making me act eighteen."

Ellis laughed. “Ya think the fountain of youth might be a chocolate fountain?"

Nick snorted. “Only you, kid. Only you."

The southern man grinned, kissing his partner softly. “I sure hope so."

Anything sad or annoying was forgotten that evening in favor of the taste of strawberries and chocolate, and the light in the eyes of the partner each of them had known and loved for many years.

•80•

On what would have been his eightieth birthday, Ellis and Rochelle found a bottle of aged wine from a year before the infection and split it by Nick’s grave.

Rochelle poured the drinks when the glasses ran dry, carefully monitoring how much went into Ellis’ glass, and Ellis told stories about the birthdays he and Nick had celebrated together. About fine wine and chocolate. About birthday cards and compliments. About grey hair and wrinkles and the fountain of youth.

He told her about love, and about life, and as Rochelle remembered hearing stories from old men growing up about their wives and lives and loves, she realized that she knew the look in Ellis’ eyes. That was the look of a man who’d had something so great, nothing would ever bring him down again.

Not even having to wait the years he would to get it back.


End file.
